The Star River Era! The Dimensional Freedom Demon

The sudden, deafening explosion instantly swallowed up all other sounds in the entire apartment building.

The screams, cries for help, and gunfire that had just filled the apartment were all extinguished as if by an invisible force.

With the entire world muted, Ji Chen slowly stepped out of the room.

He stepped over the piles of corpses in the corridor, half-hidden by sawdust and broken bricks.

As they walked, a blood-red arm suddenly reached out and grabbed at Ji Chen's ankle.

Ji Chen kept his steps unchanged, but simply stepped down with the foot he was about to lift.

Snapped!

Old Xu, who was critically injured and on the verge of death, had his outstretched hand crushed into a meat patty by Ji Chen in an instant, and he couldn't help but cry out in pain.

ho~

His torn, dry vocal cords made his groans sound so pitiful and pathetic.

But Ji Chen showed no mercy. Instead, he used a clever trick to kick Lao Xu out of the pile of corpses, and then grabbed him by the collar.

"Where is the armory? What kind of mechanisms are there, and how do we solve them?"

Just as Lao Xu was about to open his red-stained retina to see the enemy that had destroyed them, Ji Chen hypnotized him.

"Unit 2...basement, unhackable, retinal unlock."

Upon hearing this, Ji Chen released his fist, which he had been preparing to punch to death, and carried the half-dead, bloodied man down the stairs.

Just as they reached the corner of the stairs on the third floor, Ji Chen, as if possessed, shot and killed the gunman who was lying in ambush in the corner of the stairs.

At the same time, as he passed the window hanging on the staircase, he suddenly bent over.

Boom!

A sniper bullet pierced through the stair railing.

Sixty meters away, in a seven-story building next to the Happiness Apartment, the agent holding a sniper rifle suddenly widened his eyes, looking incredulously at Ji Chen, who had anticipated the bullet's trajectory.

The next second, he suddenly woke up, not daring to even pick up his sniper rifle, and abruptly lay down.

boom!

The prone sniper touched his head in terror; it was soft and slippery.

His skull was ripped open by that shot.

On the sixth floor, the last surviving special agent let out a desperate scream.

He was so frightened that he jumped off the building and committed suicide.

During one of his internal training sessions, he heard about a senior agent's experience fighting against villains from the Extreme Intent Sect. At the time, he was quite disgusted by the fear in that senior's eyes.

They believe that as long as one is human, one is still made of flesh and blood. So what if one is skilled and has physical abilities far exceeding those of ordinary people? It's just a matter of one shot.

But today, when he actually fights against a monster with such powerful individual combat capabilities, he can truly understand this pressure.

Helpless and desperate, they were easily harvested like weeds.

"How fragile."

Ji Chen sighed softly. As he went downstairs, he calmly found the logistics agents hidden in the apartment rooms and harvested them under their desperate gazes.

. . . . . .

"Beep! Beep! Beep!"

Half an hour later, the piercing sound of police sirens burst into the apartment building.

They arrived immediately after receiving the alarm, but the police car was still blocked by the panicked crowd around them, and the police response time was more than ten minutes slower than the standard time.

"Is this where the murderer is hiding?"

Sheriff Sucha picked up his binoculars and observed the apartment.

Suddenly, his brow furrowed, and his tone became stern:

"What's going on? There are still so many residents inside who haven't evacuated?!"

"Are they all just sitting around doing nothing? Didn't we already ask the relevant departments and logistics personnel to notify the apartment residents to evacuate as soon as possible?!"

The subordinate stepped forward, his face embarrassed:

"Many residents are worried that the assailant might kill indiscriminately after they leave their homes, so..."

Sergeant Su let out a heavy sigh, then ended the topic:

"Has the killer's identity been confirmed?"

"It's confirmed, it's Chu Junhui, the heir to the Chu Group who committed murder in the street!"

"A good-for-nothing rich kid..."

Sergeant Su suddenly fell silent, recalling some confidential information he had been given before coming here.

"These are turbulent times."

He then recalled seeing refugees on the road more than once before, who had suddenly fainted due to emotional distress.

Dramatic mood swings can indeed cause someone to suddenly faint, but...

There are just too many people.

He didn't dare think too much, picked up the megaphone handed to him by his subordinate, and shouted into the building:

"Chu Junhui, listen up! You're surrounded! Don't put up this pointless resistance. Lay down your weapons, release the hostages, and I, Su Cha, guarantee you'll receive fair legal treatment!"

. . . . . .

Happiness Apartment.

Ji Chen put down the bloody liver in his hand, which he had taken from the body of a logistics officer who had suddenly fainted.

At the time, Ji Chen felt that this person's body was somewhat abnormal, and thought that he had taken gene drugs and risked his life, so he had the idea of ​​dissecting him.

After the autopsy, he indeed found abnormalities.

Ji Chen discovered that the symbiotic flora in the human body had become quite special under the influence of the Eminem virus; it was becoming more active and its invasiveness was gradually increasing.

These symbiotic bacteria have completely destroyed the nerve tissue of some of the person's organs. Then, the bacteria use the flesh and blood of these organs as nutrients, rapidly mutate, change shape, fill in and replace the atrophied organ tissue.

Logically speaking, in this situation, this person should already be dead.

What puzzled Ji Chen was that not only was this person not dead, but his physical functions were also much stronger than before.

Then a contradiction arose: he also had symptoms of physical weakness that led to coma.

How can this strange phenomenon be described?

Roughly speaking, the original "old person" is hollowed out from the inside by the "new person," and the consciousness of the "old person" slowly dies out in this body. The "new person," represented by the collective subconscious formed by the microbiome, is gradually becoming the master of the new body.

"Is this some kind of possession?"

"So, is this the case for everyone, or...?"

Just then, Ji Chen, who was deep in thought, was interrupted by a warning from Chief Su downstairs.

Ji Chen did not respond. After putting down the liver, he went to the refrigerator, took out the frozen braised meat, and swallowed it hard.

Seventy to eighty percent of the residents of Happiness Apartment had fled before, so Ji Chen assumed they had voluntarily given up their original property and handed it over to him.

With the [Mysterious Serpent Swallowing Mountain Technique] activated, the six-pound braised meat was swallowed into Ji Chen's stomach in just a few bites.

. . . . . .

Downstairs, Sergeant Su, unsurprised by the lack of response, waved his hand and issued an order:

"Team One, take control of the high points in front and behind the buildings. Snipers, aim at all possible hiding places for Chu Junhui."

"Team Two is also there. Three minutes later, under the cover of Team One, they storm into Happiness Apartment and rescue the residents first!"

"The three teams are ready at any time and will provide support based on changes in the situation."

"Miniature tactical reconnaissance drones and light tactical support drones will be deployed ahead of schedule. That's it, move out immediately!"

Sergeant Su issued orders methodically.

This is the report from the third team leader:

"Sergeant, Chu Junhui is incredibly skilled, with unimaginable individual combat abilities. We must request heavy firepower support. The lives of the residents in the building are lives, and so are the lives of our brothers! We cannot let them sacrifice themselves in vain because they are hesitant."

"mix!"

Sergeant Su was about to reprimand him, but then lowered his raised hand.

He had heard rumors about top fighters in the martial arts world before, and knew that some monsters were indeed not something his ordinary subordinates could easily deal with.

"Okay, you can use small bombs as needed. One team will also prepare a crossfire. Go down!"

. . . . . .

Perhaps the police officers downstairs came to arrest and deal with him because of the law and their duties, rather than because of orders from the tech elites behind the scenes.

But none of that mattered to Ji Chen. Secret agents or security guards—anyone who threatened him would be dealt with swiftly and decisively.

kill!

As Ji Chen set up his machine gun and unleashed devastating flames at the building's elevator and stairwell entrances, the final battle—a lone man's fight against the state's violent machinery before the apocalypse—began.

This gunshot is both the death knell of the old order and the bloody dawn of a new era.

Drones used for live streaming took off, faithfully recording the battle.